Sprint's Boost Mobile has expanded its limited BYOSP (Bring Your Own Sprint Phone) list again. The big news is that for the first time six Virgin Mobile phones are allowed on Boost Mobile. They are:

Kyocera Hydro Vibe (black)- KYC6725ABB

LG Optimus F3 (black) - LG720ABB

LG Volt (white)- LGLS740BBB

Samsung Galaxy Ring (blue) - SPHM840BBB

Samsung Galaxy S 5 (white) - SPHG900BBB

Samsung Galaxy S III - SPHL710ABB

There's currently no mention of the newly allowed Virgin Mobile devices on the Boost Mobile site's Phone Activation Support page. A PrepaidPhoneNews reader got the list above as a Facebook Message from one of the support representatives on the Boost Mobile Facebook page. I confirmed the list independently with a Boost Facebook rep.

Other than the inclusion on a few Virgin Mobile phones, the only other change is that the Sprint Galaxy S5 is now allowed on Boost. Here's the complete list of Sprint phones that can currently be activated on Boost:

Apple iPhone 5c 8GB

Apple iPhone 5s (16GB and 32GB only)

Apple iPhone 6 and 6 Plus

HTC EVO 4G

HTC EVO Shift 4G

HTC Evo 3D

HTC Hero

LG 260 - White, Blue, Black, Green

LG G

LG G2

LG LX370

LG Lotus - Black, Red, Purple

LG Lotus Elite - Red, Black

LG Optimus S

LG Remarq

LG Rumor 2 - Blue, Orange, Black,

LG Rumor Touch

Samsung Epic 4G (AKA GS2)

Samsung Epic 4G Touch

Samsung Exclaim - Blueberry, Raspberry, White

Samsung Galaxy S III 16GB

Samsung Galaxy S III 32 GB

Samsung Galaxy S4

Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini

Samsung Galaxy S4T

Samsung Galaxy S5

Samsung Instinct - Black, Pink, Black (Refresh),

Samsung Instinct s30 - Bronze, Graphite, Purple

Samsung Intercept

Samsung Moment

Samsung Note 2

Samsung Note 3

Samsung Rant - Black, Red, Purple

Samsung Reclaim - Blue, Green, Grey

Samsung Restore - Blue, Green

Samsung SPH-M220

Samsung SPH-M240

Samsung SPH-M320

Samsung SPH-M330

Samsung SPH-M360

Samsung SPH-M520

Samsung Seek (Various Colors)

Sanyo Incognito

Sanyo Innuendo - Blue, Red, Black

Sanyo Mirro - SCP-3810

Sanyo SCP-2700 - Blue, Pink

Sanyo SCP-3200 - Blue, Black, Pink

Sanyo SCP-3800 - Blue, Black

Sanyo Taho

Sanyo Vero

Today's changes are welcome but what the heck is up with Sprint and these crazy restrictions on which phones you can activate of which Sprint service. Sprint desperately needs more revenue to survive. There must be millions of two and three year old Sprint and Virgin Mobile phones sitting in drawers unused after their owners upgraded or switched to another carrier. Some of these unused phones would likely get handed down to friends and relatives if they could be easily activated on Sprint Prepaid, Virgin Mobile or Boost Mobile. Then there are the non-Sprint "Universal Phones" like the iPhone 6 and later, Nexus 6 and latter and the 2015 Moto X Pure Edition that are capable of working on any carrier, yet are blocked from activating on Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile or Sprint Prepaid.

With the smallest and slowest network the only ways Sprint can attract customers is with price or convenience. The easiest way to lose a sale is by telling a customer they can't do what they want to do. With arbitrary restrictions on which Sprint network phones can be used on which Sprint brands, Sprint is turning away customers and leaving much needed money on the table. What is Sprint management thinking? Do they seriously believe that someone who gets shut down trying to activate second hand Nexus 6 or Verizon iPhone 6 on Boost will go with Sprint postpaid? They won't, they'll end up on Cricket, MetroPCS or, if Sprint's lucky, a Sprint MVNO.

Update 2/10/15: A Boost dealer sent me a different list from November which he says is the latest he's received. It's missing the Virgin Mobile phones and a few of the older Sprint phones on the list I got from the Facebook rep but it includes the LG G3 which isn't on the Facebook list. Seems like Sprint is sending mixed messages as they so often do. As always with BYOSP nothing is certain until you actually get phone activated on the service of your choice.

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comments:

I was a defender of sprints odd restrictions but with cricket, metro, and Tmobile proper it just doesn't make sense to me anymore, it's not like sprint is Verizon, Dennis, does this include new, never activated Virgin mobile phones?

Actually on a taketh and giveth and staying the same note, Boost yanked all their mid level Sprint Wimax Androids back in November before allowing them back on again. Heard Iphone 6s/6s Plus may be allowed too. I'll post when I get a confirm.

Seriously! Sprint and its prepaid brands still seem to have some of the most restrictive BYOD policies in the industry. At one time I could maybe understand the need to prevent postpaid subsidized phones (most particularly current flagship or "hero" phones) from entering other channels, and it made sense, since the CDMA system didn't have any way of "locking" subsidized phones specifically to the network the way GSM did. However, now that Sprint has the FEC, I don't see any good reason why they shouldn't allow ANY phone that is technically capable of working on the Sprint network onto whatever Sprint-based service the customer wants. As you say, with Sprint being in such bad financial shape, they could clearly use all the customers they can get, and even Verizon has less restrictive BYOD policies than Sprint does now!

Maybe it's the result of managerial incompetence... When you look at the sheer mess Sprint made when they first rolled out the FEC, you really have to wonder!

Also, this is probably part of the reason why Sprint/Virgin/Boost phones have some of the lowest resale values in the industry. Who in their right mind would want to pay top dollar for a phone that could only work on the Sprint network, and only provided it was on a limited and arbitrary whitelist?

I personally think Son is telling Sprint to sabotage themselves so that he can sell the company off.They are the last telecom to still be unreasonably strict on unlocking, especially older phones that just barely work on their network. I want this to end even if Verizon brought them though the FTC would never allow that. It would be awesome if U.S. Cellular could buy them, but I doubt they have anywhere near the money. That would be a powerhouse CDMA/LTE network though.

Preach it, Dennis! Been saying for years that the locked phone limited inventory attitude was detrimental to the bottom line. It takes resources to make and enforce all these dumb rules and they do not make the company any money. GSM has been simple (as in SIMple) for years to make BYOD a thing of (near) beauty.

sad part is they don't appear to be really not much competition with much of the country cann't effectively use them.how much of the country really only have one real choice if they want reliable service?

If FCC wants real competition they need to make the big Carriers allow the small ones too cheaply cheaply roam their networks. without that there's no level playing field in to compete on.

I recently traveled to a place that Sprint says is in the heart of enhanced LTE, but my phone only got 1-bar. Data barely worked (when it worked).

Honestly, if it ain't out in the boonies then there's really no excuse for "kbps" LTE.

It's a good thing Verizon's 3G was more reliable.

Now I'm thinking about using an AT&T LTE phone for coverage area second only to Big Red (minus the prepaid throttling). The service would cost more, but it beats fighting the urge to punt my smartphone into a wall.